I. Introduction The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." Despite this most hallowed of constitutional imperatives, both Congress and the states have found numerous occasions ...

Overview: The U.S. and CA Constitutions Fall 2000 We turn now to a study of the basic institutional context or infrastructure of tbe U.S. and California systems of government and politics. It is important to remember that the political process is "contextual." It...

Why Did the U.S. Involve Itself with the Middle East in the Early to Mid 1990's? When the United States of America was founded in 1776 it seemed to our forefathers there was little if any need for a real foreign policy. The general belief was that the United States was small and, to say th...

A Journey Though the "Golden Gates" of Promise Great controversy exists over the true promises of the "Golden Gates" in the United States. Discrimination occurs with different ethnic groups, but for those immigrants permitted into the country, the opportunities are excellen...

Government, the term applied to the institutions and processes, whether formally established or not, by which individuals and groups within a state or society are controlled and regulated for various purposes, such as common defense, general welfare, or internal peace. Thus government is an agency o...

Does Britain need a written constitution? When questioning Britain's current constitution it is first necessary to define what a constitution is and more importantly what the British constitution consists of. A constitution is broadly described as, a set of rules that seek to establish the...

When our forefathers created the Constitution, they were not aware of the dramatic changes in the future. The first ten amendments which are also known as the Bill of Rights, are the most prominent rights given to an individual in the United States of America. The First Amendment, Congress shall ...

In this meeting of the Southern Historical Association great emphasis has been placed upon a re-examination of numerous phases of our history relating to the Civil War. While several papers have dealt with certain forces which helped bring about the Civil War, none has attempted a general synthes...

“Democracy Restrained: The Great Threat of the Constitution” The fundamental point of contention between the Federalists and anti-Federalists in their debates over ratification of the Constitution surrounded the question of what powers were necessary in order to insure the security of t...

Johnson -1- THE BILL OF RIGHTS By the end of the eighteenth century, the majority of Americans had come to believe that government was created by citizens who consent to live under its laws in order to protect their rights of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." They also fe...

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE ELECTION PROCESS How much do we as a people know about electing a candidate for an official office? I have wondered about this so I thought I would look and see just how much information is out there to be discovered....

The Constitution Right from the beginning of it's creation the constitution of the United States has been a shaky document. The very basis for it being there was in fact illegal. The story of American politics starts with the Declara...

Civil War IN THIS meeting of the Southern Historical Association great emphasis has been placed upon a re-examination of numerous phases of our history relating to the Civil War. While several papers have dealt with certain forces which helped bring about the Civil War, none has attempte...

Back in the 1780's, when the constitution was still being written, there were no Democrats or Republicans; the political groups that were most present were the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. These two groups eventually formed into the political groups of today, with their ideas changed....

Article Five, clause two of the United States Constitution states, "under the Authority of the United States, [the Constitution] shall be the supreme law of the land." As a result of the fact that the current activist government is pursuing inconsistent policies, many bel...

Richard Freed Topic 8: Federalism Is the federal division of powers an obstruction to good governance in the United States? The federal division of powers does not provide an obstruction to good governance in the US. For this argument to hold, federal division of power and good governanc...

Identify and comment on what you see to be the strengths and/or weaknesses of the American system as far as the topics in this section are concerned. The constitutional system of the United States is a puzzling aspect of an American's life. Many do not understand. Some think they underst...

IN THIS meeting of the Southern Historical Association great emphasis has been placed upon a re-examination of numerous phases of our history relating to the Civil War. While several papers have dealt with certain forces which helped bring about the Civil War, none has attempted a general synt...

IN THIS meeting of the Southern Historical Association great emphasis has been placed upon a re-examination of numerous phases of our history relating to the Civil War. While several papers have dealt with certain forces which helped bring about the Civil War, none has attempted a general synt...

If the United States had a hall of fame, I think only the most important people in this nation should be admitted into it. In order to qualify you would have to have done at least three great things for your nation. Alexander Hamilton has done this and more: He has won the respect of many people inc...

Eminent domain is the moral groundwork by which government acquires private property through compulsory purchase. The idea holds that to advance the greater welfare of the public, government must be able to use land and other private goods to which it would not otherwise have access. Its present ...

According to Brian Bix, law is most often considered with deciding who gets to decide cases. In America's political system, this question is often distinguished. Much controversy and debate is focused on federalism. At what level should decisions be made, (individual, municipal, state or fed...

"From My Cold, Dead Hands!" When anyone mentions "gun control," it makes me cringe with disbelief. It is impossible for me to understand why people want to (and might some day) take away my right to gun ownership. They defend their cases by using examples of school shootings and gang vi...

The year is 1962, and the Supreme Court is about to make a landmark ruling, concerning the constitutionality of faculty lead prayer in school. Democratic President John F. Kennedy is in his second year of his term. Many Americans saw the Kennedy administration as a liberal Presidency that was ...

"Though often regarded as the leading liberal Democracy in the world, the USA is in fact politically ' exceptional' from other countries." Christian democracy, free democracy and liberal democracy are all terms, which have been used by George W bush to highlight the values, which the United State...